Developments

Elfa has been around for over 100 years and has observed much innovation in lighting from the front row. For instance, Elfa has seen krypton and halogen make way for LED lighting and more and more lighting working on batteries. Look at the future together with Elfa.

Halogen vs LED

The arrival of LED is the biggest improvement for mobile lighting since the invention of the first electric flashlight (1899). LED has a number of evident upsides for the user. First, there is little heat development, all energy goes to where it was intended for, whereas in a light bulb up to 95% may be lost. The lamps with LED are extremely economical, which is particularly important with rechargeable lamps. For this reason, LED lamps have an improved autonomy (or burn time) in combination with a powerful battery. LED lamps also resist falling and bumping better.

LED: Light Emitting Diodes

LED (Light Emitting Diodes) are electronic light sources based on so-called semiconductors, for instance gallium, silicon or arsenic. For a high light output they must be absolutely pure and must meet certain requirements. To achieve this a razor-thin, semi-conductive basic layer (wafer) in a vacuum chamber is covered with a Molecular coating. This process is called MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) and can also be described as growing crystals. After impure atoms have been implanted in purely crystalline structures, the wafer is cut into microscopically small units. These semiconductors unite different poles (anode and cathode) and later form the light chip. Light Emitting Diodes are a microstructure of solid materials and are fully shock-proof. They last 1,000 times as long as conventional light bulbs: put halogen lamps into the shadow, they will hardly emit any heat and use less energy. LEDs contain no harmful filling gases and do not emit ultraviolet light.

The modern concept of the photon was developed by Albert Einstein, the father of the relativity theory. The term ‘photon’ describes the smallest indivisible unit of light.

What happens in the light chip?

The electrons of the light diode circle faithfully around their cores. However, such atomic monogamy ends once sufficient voltage (energy provision) is available. Electrically awoken, the electrons start to break free from their atomic union to connect with an external atom. Their ‘collision’ with the new atomic union generates energy that is released in the form of small light units, so-called photons.